FORUM
11
March 20. 2009
Blackness we can put our money behind!
By Adam Katzman
Guest Writer
In the process of getting Mania Music
Group approved for Serendipity, I nearly
broke down when someone in Senate asked
if this unverified rap group would be prob
lematic.
While understood in the context of Mick
ey Avalon, the present circumstances that
question was asked under unveil an under
lying prejudice. Like, why did no one ask
why we're spending who knows how much
on a group of white guys playing southern-
fried noodling with a Malian melengoni
thrown in?
You could have done that for $2,000 with
predominantly white Michigan Afrobeat
enthusiasts NOMO (I spoke to their agent
last semester).
Better yet, for that kind of money, why
not have gotten actual African artists? Why
didn't they consider actual Malians like
Amadou & Mariam? Or the DRC-based
electric thumb-piano percussion group Ko-
nono No. 1?
Afrobeat legend Hugh Masekela is still
playing shows, but he's better off with
people who actually listen to African mu
sic, right? Guilford is too busy being pro
gressive to pay respects to African culture
outside of a possible documentary in Bryan
Jr. Auditorium.
And then there's Holy Ghost Tent Re
vival, who don't even bother with the rest
of the world, because they're busy playing
American roots music. Great.
So the moment a black rapper drops
b- and n-bombs in songs, it's like, "What?
Did they use the n-word? Are they talking
about our women? Put a leash on their bar
baric blackness!"
It suggests that Mickey Avalon's prob
lematic factor wasn't his misogyny, glori
fied drug abuse, or general crudity (who
was expecting better from the rap section
of MySpace's music label?), but that he
hook as opposed to being called out for its
misogyny. No, they think, "love songs are
soulful...oh, soul! Now that's black music I
can get behind!" Yes, thirty years too late.
Essentially the only rapper that can per
form without scrutiny is Common, who we
paid exorbitant sums for two years ago.
Why? Because he's a "conscious rapper,"
essentially meaning that he can be held up
It suggests that Mickey Avalon's problematic factor wasn't
his misogyny, glorified drug abuse, or general crudity...
but that he was doing it in the overtly eyebrow-raising
framework of the predominantly black genre of rap music.
was doing it in the overtly eyebrow-rais
ing framework of the predominantly black
genre of rap music. Not a problem was that
his cherry picking of rap's material excess
es without the socio-political factors that
shade their existence is basically a minstrel
show, in which he's putting on the white
presumption of black regressiveness.
If he were some kid with a guitar writing
pained songs about anonymous females
that ruined his reason for being by breaking
his heart, and the only thing he could do
was recycle and perpetuate the tradition of
dudes singing about archetypal heartbreak-
ers (i.e. women) that make up the bane
of their existence, he would be left off the
as a light against the dark recesses of wom
an-hating, drug-running, gun-happy gang
sters. Let's for a moment forget that Com
mon once rapped the line "I house more
hoes than Spelman."
We'll let that slide because Common raps
about being positive, about being non-vio
lent and anti-gangsta. He says words like
"revolutionary" and writes songs called
"The People."
That half of Common's lyrics are made
up of lazy pop culture references is not re
ally a populist form of witty poetics. Being
a major-label rapper with large corporate
capital, it amounts to synergistic strate
gies generally employed by companies like
McDonald's when they want to reach the
urban market by writing Lovin' instead of
Loving in their trademarked phrases and
doing an R&B jingle to back it up.
Making matters worse. Common, for
all his supposedly elevated lifestyle ac
counts for, made not only a GAP commer
cial (sweatshop haven, because the streets
of China aren't as important as the hood in
Chicago) but a whole song for a Coke com
mercial about keeping it real (as opposed
to "not selling out.") But not even the con
scious ship lasted that long.
Anyone interested in seeing Common
play into what's "popular," check his last
album Lfniversal Mind Control, where he
pulls a Mickey Avalon, as if he wasn't in
the rap game for 15 years but was instead
15 years old.
The whole thing reeks of commodified
solidarity. We'll decide what luminar
ies from underprivileged communities to
spend money on, and that way we can set
up a venerable collection of progressive and
"civilized" black products, while simulta
neously distancing ourselves from errone
ous statistics about the majority white con
sumer demographic that purchases rap.
Arguing that it's the white consumers
whose preferences for misogynistic, mate
rialistic violence gives white record execu
tives the incentive to mold the apparently
servile and malleable black kids into hon-
ky-approved Sambos for white consump
tion suggests that black people don't make
decisions, that they're too good to think for
themselves, and that now we have to save
them from destructive immorality.
Bush’s No Child Left Behind Act needs more than a new brand
By Maria Kupper
Staff Writer
According to The New York Times ar
ticle, "Rename Law? No Wisecrack Left
Behind," the No Child Left Behind Act
(NCLB) needs a more appropriate title.
Andrew Rotherham, who previously
served as the Special Assistant to the
President for Domestic Policy during
the Clinton administration, announced
a contest for the renaming of the law
on Eduwonk.com. The New York Times
cited such notable contestant ideas as
the Double Back Around to Pick Up the
Children We Left Behind Act, the Rear
ranging the Deck Chairs Act, the Teach
to the Test Act and the Could We Start
Again Please Act.
Many of the original NCLB policies
date back to 1965. After Clinton, Presi
dent George W. Bush also re-named the
act, adding more required tests and ac
countability mechanisms.
However, since his popularity dwin
dled, education and government offi
cials as well as the public began to mock
the name of the NCLB. Yet people feel
more comfortable making fun of Bush's
legislation than agitating for policy
change.
Arne Duncan, the Secretary of Edu
cation of the Obama administration
believes that the program needs to be
"re-branded." But so far the new ad
ministration has not proposed policy
changes.
Simply renaming the program only
serves to create a new veneer for the
same issues, whether or not the pro
gram was ill-served by the Bush Ad
ministration.
Currently the debate about the NCLB
involves two major camps. According to
Rotherham, many educators and advo
cates believe that public schools should
not be held accountable for poor test
results due to other more serious social
factors, such as family problems, poor
healthcare, and students' poor diets.
Others believe that the education
system needs stringent consequences
for schools who fail to meet the state's
Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) stan
dards. These deterrents include relo
cating students to other schools, using
school funding for tutoring programs,
forced restructuring of the school or, af
ter a certain amount of years of failing
to meet AYP, even shutting the school
down.
Although AYP requirements for test
scores seem to be a strong effort by the
government to oversee student prog
ress, each state can decide its own stan
dards, and have different tests.
At first, allowing students to relocate
to other institutions seems to provide a
safety valve for students. However, in
places such as Chicago where this has
come into practice, only one percent of
eligible students could take advantage
of the transfer option, because higher
performing schools were too full to fit
in new students.
Revoking school funding because of a
school's failures seems counterproduc
tive to an education system that des
perately needs more money and better
organization.
If the laws in place to help struggling
students are not working, I wonder why
the government is not enacting policy
changes instead of simply making the
title appease the public.
"Sometimes renaming can be a pow
erful indication of substantive change;
sometimes renaming only gives the ap
pearance of change," said Nancy Yoder,
visiting associate professor of Educa
tion Studies.
"I think if educators (and all citizens)
want meaningful change to NCLB, they
need to be politically active - to be talk
ing with people who can influence the
legislation, insisting that only a name
change is not enough," said Yoder.
The current situation for many stu
dents reflects that need for such politi
cal action.
"With dropout rates of nearly 50 per
cent for minority youngsters, and yawn
ing gaps in achievement between white
students and minority students, educa
tional equity must be at the forefront
of any effort to expand opportunity in
America," Rotherham said.
Although re-branding may signify
that lawmakers and government of
ficials recognize the inefficacies of the
NCLB, a new name will only be cover
ing up for an education system laden
with overly flexible standards, and safe
ty valves that fail in practice.
INTERNATIONAL
Days at Guilford
TUES. 3/24 BRYAN jR 8 P.M.
J0HNMUHAN)1PRESENTS“PEACE
AND Conflict resolution in
Kenyan Schools” sponsored
BY the Richard Jennings
foundation
Wed. 3/25 Boren Lounge,
Lawn 2-4 pm.
International festival
Thurs. 3/26 Cafeterias pm.
International
Film Series,
Opening Film: "Eat
Drink Man
WOMAN"
“Opens With
Chinese Cooking
Demonstration
BY Meriwether
Godsey Chef**